Disintegration is the eighth studio album by English rock band the Cure, released on 2 May 1989 by Fiction Records. The record marks a return to the introspective and gloomy gothic rock style the band had established in the early 1980s, as he neared the age of 30, vocalist and guitarist Robert Smith had felt an increased pressure to follow up on the group's pop successes with a more enduring work. This, coupled with a distaste for the group's newfound popularity, caused Smith to lapse back into the use of hallucinogenic drugs, the effects of which had a strong influence on the production of the album, the Cure recorded Disintegration at Hookend Recording Studios in Checkendon, Oxfordshire, with co-producer David M. Allen from late 1988 to early 1989. During production, founding member Lol Tolhurst was fired from the band.

Disintegration became the band's commercial peak, charting at number three in the United Kingdom and at number 12 in the United States, and producing several hit singles including "Lovesong", which peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100. It remains The Cure's highest selling record to date, with more than three million copies sold worldwide, it was greeted with a warm critical reception before later being acclaimed, eventually being placed at number 326 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic called it the "culmination of all the musical directions The Cure were pursuing over the course of the '80s".[3]

The Cure's second album Seventeen Seconds (1980) established the group as a prominent gothic rock band characterised by what Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic described as "slow, gloomy dirges and Smith's ghoulish appearance". Three singles were released during 1982 and 1983 that were a significant divergence in style for The Cure; essentially, pop hits.[4] "The Love Cats" became The Cure's first single to infiltrate the top ten in the United Kingdom, peaking at number seven.[5] This shift is attributed to Smith's frustration over the band's labelling as a predictable gothic rock band: "My reaction to all those people ... was to make a demented and calculated song like 'Let's Go to Bed'."[6] Following the return of guitarist Porl Thompson and bassist Simon Gallup in 1984 and the addition of drummer Boris Williams in 1985, Smith and keyboardist Lol Tolhurst continued to integrate more pop-oriented themes with the release of the group's sixth studio album The Head on the Door (1985). With the singles "In-Between Days" and "Close to Me", The Cure became a viable commercial force in the United States for the first time.[7]

The band's 1987 double album Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me resulted in further commercial success, with a sold-out world tour booked in its wake, despite the success, internal friction became prevalent. Tolhurst began to consume heavy amounts of alcohol, rendering him useless.[8]Roger O'Donnell was hired as a second keyboardist to pick up the slack. O'Donnell quickly realised that Tolhurst was essentially dead weight: "I couldn't see why [Tolhurst] was in the band, he could have afforded to hire a tutor and have daily lessons, but he wasn't interested in practicing. He just liked being in the group."[8] The rest of the band were equally unimpressed, as Tolhurst's alcohol consumption increased, Smith recalled that his behaviour was similar to that of "some kind of handicapped child being constantly poked with a stick".[8] At the end of the Kissing Tour in support of Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Smith became uncomfortable with the side effects of being a pop star and moved to Maida Vale (in West London) with fiancée Mary Poole. Regularly taking LSD to cope with his depression, Smith once again felt The Cure were being misunderstood and sought to return to the band's dark side with their next record.[9]

Robert Smith's depression prior to the recording of Disintegration gave way to the realisation on his 29th birthday that he would turn 30 in one year, this realisation was frightening to him, as he felt all the masterpieces in rock and roll had been completed well before the band members reached such an age. Smith consequently began to write music without the rest of the band, the material he had written instantly took a dismal, depressing form, which he credited to "the fact that I was gonna be thirty".[10] The Cure convened at Boris Williams' home in the summer of 1988 where Smith played his bandmates the demos he had recorded. If they had not liked the material, he was prepared to record them as a solo album: "I would have been quite happy to have made these songs on my own. If the group hadn't thought it was right, that would have been fine."[10] His bandmates liked the demos and began playing along, the group recorded 32 songs at Williams' house with a 16-track recorder by the end of the summer.[10]

When the band entered Hook End Manor Studios in Oxfordshire, their attitude had turned sour towards Tolhurst's escalating alcohol abuse, although Smith insisted that his displeasure was caused by a meltdown in the face of recording The Cure's career-defining album and reaching 30. Displeased with the swollen egos he believed his bandmates possessed, Smith entered what he considered to be "one of my non-talking modes" deciding "I would be monk-like and not talk to anyone, it was a bit pretentious really, looking back, but I actually wanted an environment that was slightly unpleasant". He sought to abandon the mood present on Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me and the pop singles they had released, and rather recreate the atmosphere of the band's fourth album Pornography (1982).

Tolhurst, meanwhile, was becoming a nuisance, the band found him impossible to work with, and he spent most of the recording process drunk and watching MTV. The members of the band, except for Smith, would taunt and physically abuse Tolhurst simply to get a reaction. Smith recalls that Tolhurst turned into someone he did not recognise: "I didn't know who he was any more and he didn't know who he was either. I used to despair and scream at the others because it was fucking insane the way we were treating him."[11] At that point, Smith was allowing Tolhurst to remain in The Cure simply because he felt an obligation as an old friend, the other band members, finally, threatened to quit if Tolhurst was not fired before the end of the recording session. When Tolhurst arrived to the mixing of the album excessively drunk, a shouting match ensued and he left the building furious; this effectively terminated his tenure with The Cure.[11] Smith and the rest of the group confirm he contributed nothing to the record.[12] Thereafter, O'Donnell became an integral member of The Cure, instead of simply a touring musician,[13] despite Tolhurst's ejection from the group, Smith told NME in April 1989, "He'll probably be back by Christmas. He's getting married, maybe that's his comeback."[14] Tolhurst only returned briefly around 2011.

Disintegration was Robert Smith's thematic return to a dark and gloomy aesthetic that The Cure had explored in the early 1980s. Smith deliberately sought to record an album that was depressing, as it was a reflection of the despondency he felt at the time,[15] the sound of the album was a shock to the band's American label Elektra Records; the label requested Smith shift the release date back several months. Smith recalled "they thought I was being 'wilfully obscure', which was an actual quote from the letter [Smith received from Elektra]. Ever since then I realised that record companies don't have a fucking clue what The Cure does and what The Cure means."[16] Despite rumours that Smith was one of the only contributors to the record, he confirmed that more than half of the dozen tracks on Disintegration had substantial musical input from the rest of the band.[16]

Disintegration is characterized by a significant usage of synthesizers and keyboards, slow, "droning" guitar progressions and Smith's introspective vocals. "Plainsong", the album's opener, "set the mood for Disintegration perfectly", according to biographer Jeff Apter, by "unravelling ever so slowly in a shower of synths and guitars, before Smith steps up to the mic, uttering snatches of lyrics ('I'm so cold') as if he were reading from something as sacred as the Dead Sea Scroll."[17] Smith felt the song was a perfect opener for the record, describing it as "very lush, very orchestral", the album's third track, "Closedown", contains layers of keyboard texture complemented with a slow, gloomy guitar line. The track was written by Smith as a means to list his physical and artistic shortcomings,[17] despite the dark mood present throughout Disintegration, "Lovesong" was an upbeat track that became a hit in the United States. Ned Raggett of AllMusic noted the difference from other songs: "the Simon Gallup/Boris Williams rhythm section create a tight, serviceable dance groove, while Smith and Porl Thompson add further guitar fills and filigrees as well, adding just enough extra bite to the song. Smith himself delivers the lyric softly, with gentle passion."[18]

Much of the album made use of a considerable amount of guitar effects. "Prayers for Rain", a depressing track (Raggett noted: "the phrase 'savage torpor' probably couldn't better be applied anywhere else than to this song") sees Thompson and Smith "treating their work to heavy duty flanging, delay, backwards-run tapes and more to set the slow, moody crawl of the track."[19] Others, like the title track, are notable for "Smith's commanding lead guitar lines [that are] scaled to epic heights while at the same time buried in the mix, almost as if they're trying to burst from behind the upfront rhythm assault. Roger O'Donnell's keyboards add both extra shade and melody, while Smith's singing is intentionally delivered in a combination of cutting clarity and low resignation, at times further distorted with extra vocal treatments."[20]

While Disintegration mainly consists of sombre tracks, "Lovesong", "Pictures of You" and "Lullaby" were equally popular for their accessibility.[17] Smith wanted to create a balance on the album by including songs that would act as an equilibrium with those that were unpleasant. Smith wrote "Lovesong" as a wedding present for Mary Poole, the lyrics had a noticeably different mood than the rest of the record, but Smith felt it was an integral component of Disintegration: "It's an open show of emotion. It's not trying to be clever. It's taken me ten years to reach the point where I feel comfortable singing a very straightforward love song."[21] The lyrics were a notable shift in his ability to reveal affection; in the past, Smith felt it necessary to disguise or mask such a statement. He noted that without "Lovesong", Disintegration would have been radically different: "That one song, I think, makes many people think twice. If that song wasn't on the record, it would be very easy to dismiss the album as having a certain mood, but throwing that one in sort of upsets people a bit because they think, 'That doesn't fit'."[15] "Pictures of You", while upbeat, contained poignant lyrics ("Screamed at the make-believe/Screamed at the sky/You finally found all your courage to let it all go") with a "two-chord cascade of synthesizer slabs, interweaving guitar and bass lines, passionate singing and romantic lyrics."[17][22] "Lullaby" is composed of what Apter calls "sharp stabs" of rhythmic guitar chords with Smith whispering the words. The premise for the song came to Smith after remembering lullabies his father would sing him when he could not sleep: "[My father] would always make them up. There was always a horrible ending, they would be something like 'sleep now, pretty baby or you won't wake up at all.'"[17]

Disintegration was released in May 1989 and peaked at number three on the UK Albums Chart, the highest position the band had placed on the chart at that point.[23] In the UK, the lead single "Lullaby" became The Cure's highest charting hit in their home country when it reached number five;[23] in the US, due to its appearance in the film Lost Angels, the band's American label Elektra Records released "Fascination Street" as the first single.[24] The international follow-up single to "Lullaby", "Lovesong", became The Cure's highest charting hit in the United States, when it reached number two on the Billboard charts,[25] the success of Disintegration was such that the March 1990 final single "Pictures of You" reached number 24 on the British charts, despite the fact that the album had been released a year earlier.[26]Disintegration was certified silver (60,000 copies shipped) in the United Kingdom,[27] and by 1992 had sold more than three million copies worldwide.[28]

In a contemporary review for Rolling Stone, music critic Michael Azerrad gave the album three-and-a-half out of five stars and felt that, "while Disintegration doesn't break new ground for the band, it successfully refines what the Cure does best". He concluded, "Despite the title, Disintegration hangs together beautifully, creating and sustaining a mood of thoroughly self-absorbed gloom. If, as Smith has hinted, the Cure itself is about to disintegrate, this is a worthy summation."[29]Melody Maker reviewer Chris Roberts dismissed the claims that Disintegration was not a miserable record and, noting the tone of the album and its lack of melody ("You'll be lucky to find a tune on here. Or a gag"), he commented that "The Cure have almost invisibly stopped making pop records". Roberts summarised the album as "challenging and claustrophobic, often poignant, often tedious. It's nearly surprising."[30]NME praised Disintegration for its tunes, "from the first track 'Plainsong', a swaying, slow narrative, paralysing the listener with sex-poison, to Disintegration's last 'Untitled' Smith's lyrical agony of indecision is remorseless". Reviewer Barbara Ellen noted the large range of emotions in Smith's lyrics, "from deep, loving pink to an ugly, violent maroon and almost back again", although she found the two extra-tracks superfluous, Ellen hailed Disintegration as "a mindblowing and stunningly complete album".[31]Q gave the album a three-star rating out of five, mainly comparing it to Joy Division's work. Writer Mat Snow observed: "The Cure have studied well the art of the tragic bass line, the hesitant and melancholy guitar lick, the funereal keyboard coloration", he concluded: "Disintegration is thus well-crafted [...], just don't tell me it's original".[32]Robert Christgau of The Village Voice gave the album a "C+" grade and felt that Smith attempts to appease a larger audience by broadening "gothic clichés" and "pumping his bad faith and bad relationship into depressing moderato play-loud keyb anthems far more tedious than his endless vamps".[33]

In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave Disintegration four-and-a-half out of five stars, and applauded the band by saying, "The Cure's gloomy soundscapes have rarely sounded so alluring [and] the songs – from the pulsating, ominous 'Fascination Street' to the eerie, string-laced 'Lullaby' – have rarely been so well-constructed and memorable."[3] Erlewine went on to praise Disintegration for being "darkly seductive", and "a hypnotic, mesmerizing record".[3]Pitchfork praised the record, admitting "Disintegration stands unquestionably as Robert Smith's magnum opus."[34] Writer Chris Ott noted that "scant few albums released in the 1980s can boast an opener as grand as 'Plainsong', the most breathtaking, shimmering anthem the band ever recorded."[34]

Disintegration has been included in numerous "Best Of" lists. Rolling Stone placed the record at number 326 on its 2003 compilation of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time".[35] The magazine's German counterpart placed Disintegration at number 184 on the same list,[36] the album was considered to be the best album of 1989 by Melody Maker,[37] 17th on Q magazine's "40 Best Albums of the 80s",[38] and 38th on Pitchfork's "Best Albums of the 80s".[34] The album placed at number 14 in Entertainment Weekly's "New Classics: The 100 Best Albums from 1983 to 2008."[39] In 2012, Slant Magazine listed the album at number 15 on its list of "Best Albums of the 1980s";[40] in a 2001 article in Rolling Stone, readers selected Disintegration as number 9 in of "the 10 Best Albums of the Eighties".[41] The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[42] In an episode of South Park, Kyle Broflovski called it "the best album ever."[43]

Following completion of Disintegration, Smith noted that The Cure had "despite my best efforts, actually become everything that I didn't want us to become: a stadium rock band."[17] Furthermore, Smith claimed the album's title was the most appropriate one he could think of: "Most of the relationship with the band outside of the band fell apart. Calling it Disintegration was kind of tempting fate, and fate retaliated, the family idea of the group really fell apart too after Disintegration. It was the end of a golden period."[17]

The Prayer Tour began in Europe shortly after the release of the album. The band performed numerous high-profile concerts, including shows in front of more than 40,000 fans over two nights in Paris and their first performances in Eastern Europe. Following the European leg, the band elected to travel to North America for their upcoming US leg by boat, instead of plane. Smith and Gallup shared a fear of flight, and ultimately lamented the upcoming dates, wishing to reduce the number of concerts they booked, the record label and tour promoters strongly disagreed, and even proposed to add several new shows to the itinerary because of the success of Disintegration in the US. The first concert in the United States was at New Jersey's Giants Stadium, where 44,000 people attended; 30,000 tickets were purchased on the first day alone. The opening acts at Giant Stadium were: Pixies, Shelleyan Orphan and Love and Rockets along with a special appearance by The Bubblemen. The band were extremely displeased with the massive turnout; according to Roger O'Donnell: "We had been at sea for five days. The stadium was too big for us to take it all in. We've decided that we don't like playing stadiums that large." Smith recalls that "it was never our intention to become as big as this".[44]

The band's show at Dodger Stadium attracted roughly 50,000 attendees, grossing over US$1.5 million. The band's notably greater popularity in the United States—virtually every concert in the leg was sold out—caused Smith to break down, and threatened the band's future: "It's reached a stage where I personally can't cope with it," he said, "so I've decided this is the last time we're gonna tour."[44] Backstage, there were ongoing feuds between band members owing to the strife onset by Smith, he recalled that towards the end of the tour "I was tearing my hair out ... It was just a difficult tour."[44]Cocaine use was prevalent, and only ended up distancing Smith from his fellow band members.[44]

Upon returning to the United Kingdom in early October, Smith wanted nothing more to do with recording, promoting and touring for an album; in 1990 "Lullaby" won "Best Music Video of 1989" at the BRIT Awards. The Cure also released a live album titled Entreat (1991), which compiled songs entirely off Disintegration from their performance at Wembley Arena, and despite claims that The Cure would never tour again, Smith accepted an invitation to headline the Glastonbury Festival. O'Donnell, after two years with the group, left to pursue a solo career, and was replaced by the band's guitar technician Perry Bamonte. Smith, who was influenced by the acid house movement that had exploded in London that summer, released a predominantly electronic remix album, Mixed Up, in 1990.[44]

1.
Album
–
Album, is a collection of audio recordings issued as a single item on CD, record, audio tape, or another medium. Albums of recorded music were developed in the early 20th century, first as books of individual 78rpm records, vinyl LPs are still issued, though in the 21st century album sales have mostly focused on compact disc and MP3 formats. The audio cassette was a format used from the late 1970s through to the 1990s alongside vinyl, an album may be recorded in a recording studio, in a concert venue, at home, in the field, or a mix of places. Recording may take a few hours to years to complete, usually in several takes with different parts recorded separately. Recordings that are done in one take without overdubbing are termed live, the majority of studio recordings contain an abundance of editing, sound effects, voice adjustments, etc. With modern recording technology, musicians can be recorded in separate rooms or at times while listening to the other parts using headphones. Album covers and liner notes are used, and sometimes additional information is provided, such as analysis of the recording, historically, the term album was applied to a collection of various items housed in a book format. In musical usage the word was used for collections of pieces of printed music from the early nineteenth century. Later, collections of related 78rpm records were bundled in book-like albums, the LP record, or 33 1⁄3 rpm microgroove vinyl record, is a gramophone record format introduced by Columbia Records in 1948. It was adopted by the industry as a standard format for the album. Apart from relatively minor refinements and the important later addition of stereophonic sound capability, the term album had been carried forward from the early nineteenth century when it had been used for collections of short pieces of music. Later, collections of related 78rpm records were bundled in book-like albums, as part of a trend of shifting sales in the music industry, some commenters have declared that the early 21st century experienced the death of the album. Sometimes shorter albums are referred to as mini-albums or EPs, Albums such as Tubular Bells, Amarok, Hergest Ridge by Mike Oldfield, and Yess Close to the Edge, include fewer than four tracks. There are no rules against artists such as Pinhead Gunpowder referring to their own releases under thirty minutes as albums. These are known as box sets, material is stored on an album in sections termed tracks, normally 11 or 12 tracks. A music track is a song or instrumental recording. The term is associated with popular music where separate tracks are known as album tracks. When vinyl records were the medium for audio recordings a track could be identified visually from the grooves

2.
The Cure
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The Cure are an English rock band formed in Crawley, West Sussex in 1976. The band has experienced several changes, with vocalist, guitarist. During the early 1980s, the increasingly dark and tormented music was a staple of the emerging gothic rock genre. After the release of Pornography in 1982, the future was uncertain. The band is estimated to have sold 27 million records as of 2004 and have released thirteen albums, ten EPs. The 1989 album Disintegration is regarded as the commercial and critical peak. That band consisted of Robert Smith on piano, Michael Mick Dempsey on guitar, Laurence Lol Tolhurst on percussion, Marc Ceccagno on lead guitar and Alan Hill on bass guitar. In January 1976 while at St. Wilfrids Comprehensive School Ceccagno formed a 5-piece rock band with Smith on guitar and Dempsey on bass and they called themselves Malice and rehearsed David Bowie, Jimi Hendrix and Alex Harvey songs in a local church hall. By late April 1976, Ceccagno and the two school friends had left, and Tolhurst, Martin Creasy, and Porl Thompson had joined the band. This lineup played all three of Malices only documented live shows during December 1976, both Malice and Easy Cure auditioned several vocalists before Smith assumed the role of Easy Cures frontman in September 1977. That year, Easy Cure won a talent competition with German label Hansa Records, although the band recorded tracks for the company, none were ever released. Following disagreements in March 1978 over the direction the band should take, Smith later recalled, We were very young. They just thought they could turn us into a teen group and they actually wanted us to do cover versions and we always refused. Thompson was dropped from the band in May, and the trio were soon renamed The Cure by Smith. Later that month, the recorded their first sessions as a trio at Chestnut Studios in Sussex. The demo found its way to Polydor Records scout Chris Parry, the Cure released their debut single Killing an Arab in December 1978 on the Small Wonder label as a stopgap until Fiction finalised distribution arrangements with Polydor. The band placed a label that denied the racist connotations on the singles 1979 reissue on Fiction. The Cure released their debut album Three Imaginary Boys in May 1979, because of the bands inexperience in the studio, Parry and engineer Mike Hedges took control of the recording

3.
Hookend Recording Studios
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Hook End Recording Studios is a recording studio located in Hook End Manor, near Checkendon, Oxfordshire, England. Marillions Steve Hogarth has called it probably Englands most luxurious recording studio, the original studio, Space Studios was built by Alvin Lee of the band Ten Years After when he first bought the house. The band’s inflatable pig, first used to promote their Animals album six years earlier, was stored in one of the outbuildings, gilmour sold the house and studio to Trevor Horn who turned it into Sarm West. The studio is now owned by Mark White singer/songwriter with the band Godnose, several major rock bands have recorded albums at the studios. These include Manic Street Preachers Gold Against the Soul, The Cures Disintegration and Mixed Up, and Marillions Seasons End and Holidays in Eden

4.
Checkendon
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Checkendon is a village and civil parish about 6 miles west of Henley-on-Thames in South Oxfordshire and about 9 miles north west of Reading in Berkshire on a mid-height swathe of the Chilterns. The parish has a record of settlement since the 7th century. It is listed in the Domesday Book as Cecadene, the parish covers about 1,500 hectares and lies between 150 metres and 170 metres above sea level. After World War II Checkendon hosted a National Assistance Board camp for Polish war refugees displaced from Middle East, the camp, located at Checkendon outskirts was opened in 1948 and offered accommodation in Nissen huts and was closed in early 60s. The Church of England parish church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul is a 12th-century Norman building, all but one of the windows were replaced later in the Middle Ages with Decorated Gothic and Perpendicular Gothic ones, and the Perpendicular Gothic west tower is also a later addition. The building is Grade I listed, the church has an early 13th-century wall painting of Christ in Majesty above a procession of Apostles. The murals were repainted when they were rediscovered, but more recently this has been considered over-restoration. The bell tower has a ring of eight bells, Four were cast by Lester and Pack in 1765, two were cast in 1879 by Mears and Stainbank and two more cast by Mears and Stainbank were added in 1967. The turret clock is by Tucker of London, dated 1853, War artist Eric Kennington, who was churchwarden, is buried here. Checkendon has a Church of England primary school, Checkendon also has a village green with a playground. The village has two pubs, the 15th-century Four Horseshoes within the village and the 17th-century Highwayman to the south in the hamlet of Exlade Street. There is also The Black Horse at Scots Common, Checkendon has an equestrian centre located on Lovegroves Lane. Checkendon Cricket Club plays in the Berkshire Cricket League First Division, north of the village, in the 19th-century Wheelers Barn, is Philip Koomen Furniture, producing modern bespoke wooden furniture. The Hookend Recording Studios, where such as Marillion, the Cure. Two bus routes serve Checkendon, Reading Transport route 142, Reading – Woodcote – Checkendon Whites Coaches route 145, Woodcote – Checkendon – Henley Long, medieval Wall Paintings in Oxfordshire Churches. Langtree information including History of St Peter & St Paul Checkendon. org Stoke Row Chapel

5.
Gothic rock
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Gothic rock is a musical subgenre of post-punk that formed during the late 1970s. Gothic rock bands grew from the ties they had to the English punk rock. Proto-gothic bands include Siouxsie and the Banshees, Joy Division, Bauhaus, the genre itself was defined as a separate movement from post-punk due to its darker music accompanied by introspective and romantic lyrics. Gothic rock then gave rise to a subculture that included clubs, fashion. Reynolds described the style as consisting of deep, droning alloys of Jim Morrison. Siouxsie and the Banshees tended to use flanging guitar effects, producing a brittle, cold, several acts used drum machines downplaying the rhythms backbeat. Gothic rock typically deals with dark themes addressed through lyrics and the musics atmosphere, the poetic sensibilities of the genre led gothic rock lyrics to exhibit literary romanticism, morbidity, existentialism, religious symbolism or supernatural mysticism. Musicians who initially shaped the aesthetics and musical conventions of gothic rock include Marc Bolan, the Velvet Underground, the Doors, David Bowie, Iggy Pop, journalist Kurt Loder would write that the song All Tomorrows Parties by the Velvet Underground is a mesmerizing gothic-rock masterpiece. However, Reynolds considers Alice Cooper as the true ungodly godfather of goth due to his theatrics, Nicos 1969 album The Marble Index is sometimes described as the first Goth album. With its stark sound, somber lyrics, and Nicos deliberate change in her look, J. G. Ballard was a strong lyrical influence for many of the early gothic rock groups, the Birthday Party drew on Arthur Rimbaud and Charles Baudelaire. In 1976, Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice was published, the main character, although dark, wanted companionship and love. The book, according to music journalist Dave Thompson, slowly created an audience for gothic rock by word of mouth, the same year saw the punk rock band the Damned debut. The groups vocalist, Dave Vanian, was a gravedigger who dressed like a vampire. Critic John Stickney used the gothic rock to describe the music of the Doors in October 1967. Stickney wrote that the band met the journalists in the gloomy vaulted wine cellar of the Delmonico hotel, the author noted that contrary to the pleasant, amusing hippies, there was violence in their music and a dark atmosphere on stage during their concerts. In the late 1970s, the gothic was used to describe the atmosphere of post-punk bands like Siouxsie. In March 1979, Kent used the adjective in his review of Magazines second album. Kent noted that there was a new sense of authority to their music

6.
Fiction Records
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Fiction Records is a British record label founded by Chris Parry, in 1978, owned by Universal Music Group and based in the United Kingdom. It is best known for being the home of The Cure for over 20 years and it was originally a part of Polydor, but on January 2014, Universal restructured Fiction as a standalone label, removing it from Polydors corporate affiliation. Fiction repertoire is now released internationally through Caroline, Fiction was also home to UK dance label Desire, re-launched in 1988 as Fictions house subdivision, and Non Fiction Records, Fictions specialty label for special editions. Fiction was best known for The Cures releases and achieved its first UK No.1 album in 1992 with The Cures Wish, the albums lead single Friday Im In Love also topped Billboards Modern Rock chart. Other artists who were part of the Fiction roster and publishing catalog during this time included Billy Mackenzie & The Associates, Candyland, The Purple Hearts, Cult Hero, however, BMG eventually acquired Fiction Songs and its catalog in 2001. In 1992, the Fiction headquarters at Charlotte Street served as the first home to XFM London, a benefit concert called Great Xpectations was held in support of the station on 13 June 1993 at Finsbury Park in London. A live album of the concert titled Great Xpectations Live was released on July 1993 on Fiction and included performances by The Cure, Damon Albarn & Graham Coxon, Belly and Catherine Wheel. In January 2004, Joe Munns, Paul Smernicki and Beastman revived Fiction to give Polydor a bit more of a guitar stronghold, the first release on the new Fiction was the Snow Patrol single Run, which entered the UK Singles Chart at No.5. The subsequent Snow Patrol album, Final Straw, went on to sell two million copies worldwide. On January 2014, Universal Music Group restructured Fiction as a standalone label, removing it from Polydors corporate affiliation. Fiction has also released records by The Naked And Famous, Kate Nash, Athlete, White Lies, Yuksek, Stephen Fretwell, Ian Brown, Jacknife Lee, Delays, Alberta Cross, Guillemots and Yeah Yeah Yeahs

7.
Record producer
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A record producer or music producer oversees and manages the sound recording and production of a band or performers music, which may range from recording one song to recording a lengthy concept album. A producer has many roles during the recording process, the roles of a producer vary. The producer may perform these roles himself, or help select the engineer, the producer may also pay session musicians and engineers and ensure that the entire project is completed within the record companies budget. A record producer or music producer has a broad role in overseeing and managing the recording. Producers also often take on an entrepreneurial role, with responsibility for the budget, schedules, contracts. In the 2010s, the industry has two kinds of producers with different roles, executive producer and music producer. Executive producers oversee project finances while music producers oversee the process of recording songs or albums. In most cases the producer is also a competent arranger, composer. The producer will also liaise with the engineer who concentrates on the technical aspects of recording. Noted producer Phil Ek described his role as the person who creatively guides or directs the process of making a record, indeed, in Bollywood music, the designation actually is music director. The music producers job is to create, shape, and mold a piece of music, at the beginning of record industry, producer role was technically limited to record, in one shot, artists performing live. The role of producers changed progressively over the 1950s and 1960s due to technological developments, the development of multitrack recording caused a major change in the recording process. Before multitracking, all the elements of a song had to be performed simultaneously, all of these singers and musicians had to be assembled in a large studio and the performance had to be recorded. As well, for a song that used 20 instruments, it was no longer necessary to get all the players in the studio at the same time. Examples include the rock sound effects of the 1960s, e. g. playing back the sound of recorded instruments backwards or clanging the tape to produce unique sound effects. These new instruments were electric or electronic, and thus they used instrument amplifiers, new technologies like multitracking changed the goal of recording, A producer could blend together multiple takes and edit together different sections to create the desired sound. For example, in jazz fusion Bandleader-composer Miles Davis album Bitches Brew, producers like Phil Spector and George Martin were soon creating recordings that were, in practical terms, almost impossible to realise in live performance. Producers became creative figures in the studio, other examples of such engineers includes Joe Meek, Teo Macero, Brian Wilson, and Biddu

8.
Robert Smith (musician)
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Robert James Smith is an English singer, songwriter and musician. He is the singer, guitarist, lyricist and principal songwriter of the rock band the Cure. He is the only constant member since its formation in 1976. He also played guitar in the band Siouxsie and the Banshees, Smith is a multi-instrumentalist, known for his unique stage look and distinctive voice. Smith was born in the Lancashire town of Blackpool and is the third of four born to James Alexander. Smith came from a musical family – his father sang and his mother played the piano, raised Catholic, he later became an atheist. He later attended Notre Dame Middle School and St Wilfrids Comprehensive School, both Robert and his younger sister Janet had piano lessons, Smith said that Janet was a piano prodigy, so sibling rivalry made me take up guitar because she couldnt get her fingers around the neck. He told Chris Heath of Smash Hits magazine that from about 1966 his brother Richard taught him a few chords on guitar. Smith began taking guitar lessons from the age of nine, with a student of John Williams. I learned a lot, but got to the point where I was losing the sense of fun, Smith has said his guitar tutor was horrified by his playing. Robert consequently gave up formal tuition and began teaching himself to play by ear, Smith was thirteen or fourteen when he became more serious about rock music and started to play and learn frenetically. Up until December 1972 he did not have a guitar of his own, but Id commandeered it anyway – so whether he was officially giving it to me at Christmas or not, I was going to have it. Smith was quoted in earlier sources as saying he purchased the Top 20 himself for £20. Smith described Notre Dame Middle School as a very free-thinking establishment with an experimental approach, according to Smith four other kids beat him up after school, although Jeff Apter notes that Smith has given several conflicting versions of the story. In the summer of 1975, Smith and his school bandmates sat their O Level exams, Robert Smith has said that his first band when he was fourteen consisted of my brother Richard, some of his friends and my younger sister Janet. It was called the Crawley Goat Band – brilliant, Jeff Apter, however, dates the performance to April 1973, which is at variance with Smith and his bandmates having already left Notre Dame Middle School by this time. Smith said that they were simply as the group because it was the only one at school so we didnt need a name. Dempsey, who moved from guitar to bassist for the group

9.
Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me
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Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me is the seventh studio album by British alternative rock band The Cure, released in May 1987. The album helped put The Cure into the American mainstream, becoming their first album to reach the Billboard Top 40 and it was also a big international success, as was its predecessor, The Head on the Door, reaching the Top 10 in numerous countries. This is the last studio band member Porl Thompson played keyboards on. Special guest Andrew Brennan played the saxophone on Hey You. Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me was released on 5 May 1987 by record label Fiction and Elektra in the US. Though a double album, it was released as a single CD, one track, Hey You. was omitted from the original CD release to fit the album on one disc, but was included on all cassette releases. A limited vinyl edition came with an extra six-track 12, the album was re-released in August 2006. The first disc includes Hey You, which had been omitted from the previous CD issue. The second disc is composed of demos and live versions of the songs on the first disc, from the final show of the Kissing Tour at the Wembley Arena. It was released 8 August 2006 in the U. S. and 14 August 2006 in the UK, Robert Smith stated on his website that there were so many missing tracks that he made three discs. One had the album, one had demos of the B-Sides and unreleased tracks. After discussing it with family and friends, he decided that former of the discs was more qualified to be released. He said it wasnt impossible that the disc may show up in a leak or another release. Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me continues to dominate the bands live set, how Beautiful You Are, Just Like Heaven, Hot Hot Hot. If Only Tonight We Could Sleep, and Shiver and Shake at various shows. In April 2014, the Cure announced that in late 2014 they would be performing The Top, The Head on the Door and Kiss Me, Kiss Me, all lyrics written by Robert Smith, all music composed by The Cure. Note The track Hey You. was omitted from the original CD release, when the album was reissued in 2006, the song was included, as CD technology had improved to allow run times up to 80 minutes. Production David M. Allen, Robert Smith – production Sean Burrows, Jacques Hermet – assistant production Bob Clearmountain – mixing on Just Like Heaven Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me at MusicBrainz

10.
Entreat
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Entreat is a live album by British alternative rock band The Cure, recorded at Londons Wembley Arena in July 1989. It consists entirely of songs performed from the bands 1989 record Disintegration, entreat was distributed exclusively in France as a promotional tool. When bootlegs began to surface, however, the album was given a limited European release, entreat was also given away free by HMV stores in the UK and Ireland to customers who purchased two CDs from the bands back catalogue. The last two tracks were released in 1989 as b-sides to the US version of Lullaby, fascination Street, Last Dance, Prayers For Rain, and Disintegration were also included as b-sides on the Pictures of You CD single. It was the first time the album was released worldwide, though it had already released on CD before

11.
Single (music)
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In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a song recording of fewer tracks than an LP record, an album or an EP record. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats, in most cases, a single is a song that is released separately from an album, although it usually also appears on an album. Typically, these are the songs from albums that are released separately for promotional uses such as digital download or commercial radio airplay and are expected to be the most popular, in other cases a recording released as a single may not appear on an album. As digital downloading and audio streaming have become prevalent, it is often possible for every track on an album to also be available separately. Nevertheless, the concept of a single for an album has been retained as an identification of a heavily promoted or more popular song within an album collection. Despite being referred to as a single, singles can include up to as many as three tracks on them. The biggest digital music distributor, iTunes, accepts as many as three tracks less than ten minutes each as a single, as well as popular music player Spotify also following in this trend. Any more than three tracks on a release or longer than thirty minutes in total running time is either an Extended Play or if over six tracks long. The basic specifications of the single were made in the late 19th century. Gramophone discs were manufactured with a range of speeds and in several sizes. By about 1910, however, the 10-inch,78 rpm shellac disc had become the most commonly used format, the inherent technical limitations of the gramophone disc defined the standard format for commercial recordings in the early 20th century.26 rpm. With these factors applied to the 10-inch format, songwriters and performers increasingly tailored their output to fit the new medium, the breakthrough came with Bob Dylans Like a Rolling Stone. Singles have been issued in various formats, including 7-inch, 10-inch, other, less common, formats include singles on digital compact cassette, DVD, and LD, as well as many non-standard sizes of vinyl disc. Some artist release singles on records, a more common in musical subcultures. The most common form of the single is the 45 or 7-inch. The names are derived from its speed,45 rpm. The 7-inch 45 rpm record was released 31 March 1949 by RCA Victor as a smaller, more durable, the first 45 rpm records were monaural, with recordings on both sides of the disc. As stereo recordings became popular in the 1960s, almost all 45 rpm records were produced in stereo by the early 1970s

12.
Lullaby (The Cure song)
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Lullaby is a 1989 single by The Cure from their album Disintegration. The song is the most successful single by the band in their home country, additionally, the music video won the 1990 Best British Video at the 1990 Brit Awards. Tim Pope, a collaborator of The Cure on many of its music videos. The music video for Lullaby was filmed at a stage in London. It features Robert in bed, in a sequence. The music video, during which Smith plays both the cannibalistic spiderman mentioned in the lyrics and his victim, concludes with Smith being swallowed by what appears to be a giant spider. The music video, directed by Tim Pope and edited by Peter Goddard, upon its release, Lullaby became The Cures highest charting hit in their home country when it reached number five, in fact, it remains their only single to reach the Top 5 in the UK. The US-only single Fascination Street included the B-sides from the UK release of Lullaby, therefore, the US release needed some new B-sides. The two live cuts, Homesick and Untitled, are from the limited edition live album Entreat, the song was remixed for single release, giving it more of an electronic feel. It was also sampled by hip hop artist Akala in the song I Dont Know on his 2007 album Freedom Lasso. It has been covered by British post-punk revival band Editors on the compilation Radio 1, Established 1967, Editors version reappeared on Pictures of You – a tribute to Godlike Geniuses The Cure, which came with the 28 February 2009 issue of NME. Lullaby is the greatest dark pop song… possibly of all years, faithlesss 2006 album To All New Arrivals features Lullaby within the track Spiders, Crocodiles, and Kryptonite, where Robert Smith has re-recorded the vocals. Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics

13.
Fascination Street
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Fascination Street is a 1989 U. S. -only single by the rock band The Cure from their album Disintegration. Their American record company refused the original choice Lullaby as the first single. The song is notable for its extended bass introduction, the song became the bands first number-one single on Billboards then-newly created Modern Rock Tracks chart, where it stayed on top for seven weeks. An extended mix was produced, notable in which the lyrics begin after a 4,00 instrumental intro. The song appeared in the video game Guitar Hero, Warriors of Rock and in the documentary Warren Millers

14.
Lovesong (The Cure song)
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Lovesong is a song originally recorded by the English alternative rock band The Cure, released as the third single from their eighth studio album Disintegration in 1989. The song has been covered by artists, with notable cover versions by American rock band 311, recorded for the soundtrack for the film 50 First Dates. This song was performed by Adele on her 2011 album 21. Upon release as a single, the song received worldwide success, the song also charted at #2 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart, #27 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and #18 on the UK Singles Chart. Robert Smith originally wrote the song for his girlfriend and then fiancée, Mary. An instrumental demo version recorded by the band was featured on the disk of the 2010 re-release of Disintegration. A music video featuring the band performing inside a cave was also released with the single, when released as a single in 1989, the cover artwork displayed the title as Lovesong, while the printing on the disc itself read Love Song all three times. Subsequent releases of Paris and Galore both use Lovesong exclusively, while 2001s Greatest Hits compilation uses Lovesong on the track listing, 2004s Join the Dots also uses Lovesong within the booklet presentation. On the Disintegration version, an electric guitar joins the keyboards in this section, the guitar part has been removed on the remix, and all you hear are the keyboards, accompanied by bass guitar and drums. It is also featured on 311s greatest hits album, Greatest Hits 93–03, while The Cures original version hit number 2 on the Alternative Songs chart, 311s cover was more successful on the chart, hitting number 1 on the chart. However, The Cures original version was more successful on the pop charts, peaking number 2 on the Hot 100 chart. 311s cover was very successful in the adult contemporary radio market. While The Cures original version uses gothic rock elements, 311s cover is a song with many reggae rock roots similar to their 2002 hit Amber. The music video features 311 playing the song in a bar, canadian musical duo Dala recorded their cover of the song on the 2005 album Angels & Thieves. Canadian psychobilly band The Brains recorded their version of the song in 2014 on their The Cover Up EP, solo artists have performed covers as well, such as Tori Amos during several live performances, most famously on the radio station KROQ-FM. Naimee Coleman included an interpretation of the song on her 2001 album Bring Down The Moon, voltaire released an acoustic cover on his album Then and Again. It was also covered by Maltese singer Ira Losco, found on her 2007 unplugged album Unmasked, japanese singer Immi included a cover of the song on her debut album Switch. British singer Adele included a bossa nova cover of the song on her album,21

15.
Pictures of You (The Cure song)
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Pictures of You is the fourth and final single from the British rock band the Cures 1989 album Disintegration. Called chilly goth-rock and accessible. synth-pop, the song has a version which is a shorter edit of the album version. The other is a remix of the original album version which, at 7,59. There is also an edit which was released on 12 in the US, titled extended remix as in the European and Australasian releases, according to interviews, the inspiration of the song came when a fire broke loose in Robert Smiths home. After that day, Smith was going through the remains and came across his wallet which had pictures of his wife, the cover of the single is one of the pictures. The same picture was used as the cover of the Charlotte Sometimes single, in 2011, the song was voted #283 on Rolling Stones The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list. The Tim Pope directed video was shot in Ballachulish, Scotland during the February 1990 week of the big snow, angie Harts version was used for a TAC ad campaign to combat speeding drivers. Lit covered the song for their 2004 eponymous album Lit, the song appeared in several TV shows and films including in one episode of the series Mr. Robot. The song appeared in the last few seconds of a Casey Neistat video titled Instagram i love you, the song appeared in the film The Vow

16.
Rock music
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It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by blues, rhythm and blues and country music. Rock music also drew strongly on a number of genres such as electric blues and folk. Musically, rock has centered on the guitar, usually as part of a rock group with electric bass guitar. Typically, rock is song-based music usually with a 4/4 time signature using a verse-chorus form, like pop music, lyrics often stress romantic love but also address a wide variety of other themes that are frequently social or political in emphasis. Punk was an influence into the 1980s on the subsequent development of subgenres, including new wave, post-punk. From the 1990s alternative rock began to rock music and break through into the mainstream in the form of grunge, Britpop. Similarly, 1970s punk culture spawned the visually distinctive goth and emo subcultures and this trio of instruments has often been complemented by the inclusion of other instruments, particularly keyboards such as the piano, Hammond organ and synthesizers. The basic rock instrumentation was adapted from the blues band instrumentation. A group of musicians performing rock music is termed a rock band or rock group, Rock music is traditionally built on a foundation of simple unsyncopated rhythms in a 4/4 meter, with a repetitive snare drum back beat on beats two and four. Melodies are often derived from older musical modes, including the Dorian and Mixolydian, harmonies range from the common triad to parallel fourths and fifths and dissonant harmonic progressions. Critics have stressed the eclecticism and stylistic diversity of rock, because of its complex history and tendency to borrow from other musical and cultural forms, it has been argued that it is impossible to bind rock music to a rigidly delineated musical definition. These themes were inherited from a variety of sources, including the Tin Pan Alley pop tradition, folk music and rhythm, as a result, it has been seen as articulating the concerns of this group in both style and lyrics. Christgau, writing in 1972, said in spite of some exceptions, rock and roll usually implies an identification of male sexuality, according to Simon Frith rock was something more than pop, something more than rock and roll. Rock musicians combined an emphasis on skill and technique with the concept of art as artistic expression, original. The foundations of music are in rock and roll, which originated in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. Its immediate origins lay in a melding of various musical genres of the time, including rhythm and blues and gospel music, with country. In 1951, Cleveland, Ohio disc jockey Alan Freed began playing rhythm and blues music for a multi-racial audience, debate surrounds which record should be considered the first rock and roll record. Other artists with rock and roll hits included Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Fats Domino, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis

17.
Hallucinogen
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A hallucinogen is a psychoactive agent which can cause hallucinations, perceptual anomalies, and other substantial subjective changes in thoughts, emotion, and consciousness. The common types of hallucinogens are psychedelics, dissociatives and deliriants, although hallucinations are a common symptom of amphetamine psychosis, amphetamines are not considered hallucinogens, as they are not a primary effect of the drugs themselves. While hallucinations can occur when abusing stimulants, the nature of stimulant psychosis is not unlike delirium, a debate persists on criteria which would easily differentiate a substance which is psychedelic from one hallucinogenic. Sir Thomas Browne in 1646 coined the term hallucination from the Latin word alucinari meaning to wander in the mind, the term psychedelic is derived from the Ancient Greek words psychē and dēloun, or mind-revealing. A hallucinogen and a psychedelic may refer correctly to the same substance, hallucinations and psychedelia may both refer to the same aspects of subjective experience in a given instance. A hallucinogen in this sense refers to any substance which causes changes in perception or hallucinations. In contrast to Hollisters original criteria, adverse effects may predominate with some hallucinogens with this application of the term, the word psychedelic was coined to express the idea of a drug that makes manifest a hidden but real aspect of the mind. One explanatory model for the experiences provoked by psychedelics is the reducing valve concept, in this view, the drugs disable the brains filtering ability to selectively prevent certain perceptions, emotions, memories and thoughts from ever reaching the conscious mind. This effect has been described as mind expanding, or consciousness expanding, many designer drugs and research chemicals are hallucinogenic in nature, such as those in the 2C and NBOMe families. Dissociatives produce analgesia, amnesia and catalepsy at anesthetic doses, dissociative symptoms include the disruption or compartmentalization of. the usually integrated functions of consciousness, memory, identity or perception. p. 523 Dissociation of sensory input can cause derealization, the perception of the world as being dream-like or unreal. The primary dissociatives achieve their effect through blocking the signals received by the NMDA receptor set and include ketamine, methoxetamine, phencyclidine, dextromethorphan, however, dissociation is also remarkably administered by salvinorin As potent κ-opioid receptor agonism. Some dissociatives can have CNS depressant effects, thereby carrying similar risks as opioids, DXM in higher doses can increase heart rate and blood pressure and still depress respiration. Inversely, PCP can have unpredictable effects and has often been classified as a stimulant. While many have reported that they feel no pain while under the effects of PCP, DXM and Ketamine, this does not fall under the usual classification of anesthetics in recreational doses. Rather, true to their name, they process pain as a kind of far away sensation, pain, although present, becomes a disembodied experience, as for probably the most common dissociative, nitrous oxide, the principal risk seems to be due to oxygen deprivation. Injury from falling is also a danger, as nitrous oxide may cause loss of consciousness. Because of the level of physical activity and relative imperviousness to pain induced by PCP

18.
Lol Tolhurst
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Laurence Andrew Lol Tolhurst is a founding member and the former drummer and keyboardist of British band The Cure. He left The Cure in 1989 and was involved in the band Presence. In 2011, he reunited with The Cure for selected shows. Tolhurst was born in Horley, Surrey, England, the fifth of six children of William and Daphne Tolhurst, he has three brothers and two sisters. Tolhurst was five years old when he first met Robert Smith at St. Francis Primary and Junior Schools, and thus began a friendship that culminated in the formation of The Cure. Tolhurst is one of the co-founders of The Cure, and as a drummer he helped write and record the albums Three Imaginary Boys, Boys Dont Cry, Seventeen Seconds, Faith, after the Pornography tour in 1982 Tolhurst assumed keyboard duties. In late 1988, with the recording of The Cures eighth studio album Disintegration, some tensions surfaced, when Tolhurst was battling with alcohol and drugs. During the mix of Disintegration, he was fired from the band, and despite getting credit for Other Instrument and he said several years later that he recorded a second album with this band, but he said it is unlikely that it will ever be released. In 1991, Tolhursts first son was born in London, poet, in 1994, he sued Robert Smith and Fiction Records over royalties payments, also claiming joint ownership, with Smith, of the name The Cure. He eventually lost after a legal battle. He has worked as a producer for the album of And Also the Trees. In the early 2000s, Tolhurst and his wife, Cindy Levinson. A few months before the release of their album, Tolhurst said in an interview that he had reconciled with Robert Smith. Shortly afterward, Levinhurst released their album, Perfect Life. Since then, they have released an EP called The Grey featuring a cover of The Cures All Cats Are Grey—which he claimed credit for writing lyrically in another interview—and two other songs. Their second album, House by the Sea, was released in April 2007 and their third album, called Blue Star and featuring original Cure bassist Michael Dempsey, was released in the U. S. in June 2009 and worldwide in February 2010. He has also composed music for the film 9,000 Needles. The second part of the European tour Blue Star Over Europe was in October 2010, in 2010, The Guardian published an article with a headline reading The Cures original drummer asks to rejoin band

19.
Billboard Hot 100
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The Billboard Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for singles, published weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales, radio play and online streaming, the weekly sales period was originally Monday to Sunday, when Nielsen started tracking sales in 1991, but was changed to Friday to Thursday in July 2015. Radio airplay, which, unlike sales figures and streaming data, is available on a real-time basis. A new chart is compiled and officially released to the public by Billboard on Tuesdays, as of the issue for the week ending on April 15,2017, the Hot 100 has had 1,061 different number one hits. The current number one song is Shape of You by Ed Sheeran, prior to 1955, Billboard did not have a unified, all-encompassing popularity chart, instead measuring songs by individual metrics. At the start of the era in 1955, three such charts existed, Best Sellers in Stores was the first Billboard chart, established in 1936. This chart ranked the biggest selling singles in retail stores, as reported by merchants surveyed throughout the country, Most Played by Jockeys was Billboards original airplay chart. It ranked the most played songs on United States radio stations, as reported by radio disc jockeys, Most Played in Jukeboxes ranked the most played songs in jukeboxes across the United States. On the week ending November 12,1955, Billboard published The Top 100 for the first time, the Top 100 combined all aspects of a singles performance, based on a point system that typically gave sales more weight than radio airplay. The Best Sellers In Stores, Most Played by Jockeys and Most Played in Jukeboxes charts continued to be published concurrently with the new Top 100 chart. The week ending July 28,1958 was the publication of the Most Played By Jockeys and Top 100 charts. On August 4,1958, Billboard premiered one main all-genre singles chart, the Hot 100 quickly became the industry standard and Billboard discontinued the Best Sellers In Stores chart on October 13,1958. The Billboard Hot 100 is still the standard by which a songs popularity is measured in the United States, the Hot 100 is ranked by radio airplay audience impressions as measured by Nielsen BDS, sales data compiled by Nielsen Soundscan and streaming activity provided by online music sources. There are several component charts that contribute to the calculation of the Hot 100. Charts are ranked by number of gross audience impressions, computed by cross-referencing exact times of radio airplay with Arbitron listener data. Hot Singles Sales, the top selling singles compiled from a sample of retail store, mass merchant and internet sales reports collected, compiled. The chart is released weekly and measures sales of commercial singles. With the decline in sales of singles in the US

20.
Rolling Stone
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Rolling Stone is an American biweekly magazine that focuses on popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner, who is still the publisher. It was first known for its coverage and for political reporting by Hunter S. Thompson. In the 1990s, the magazine shifted focus to a readership interested in youth-oriented television shows, film actors. In recent years, it has resumed its traditional mix of content, Rolling Stone magazine was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and Ralph Gleason. To get it off the ground, Wenner borrowed $7,500 from his own family and from the parents of his soon-to-be wife, Jane Schindelheim. The first issue carried a date of November 9,1967. Some authors have attributed the name solely to Dylans hit single, At Gleasons suggestion, Rolling Stone initially identified with and reported the hippie counterculture of the era. In the very first edition, Wenner wrote that Rolling Stone is not just about the music, in the 1970s, Rolling Stone began to make a mark with its political coverage, with the likes of gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson writing for the magazines political section. Thompson first published his most famous work Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas within the pages of Rolling Stone, where he remained a contributing editor until his death in 2005. In the 1970s, the magazine also helped launch the careers of prominent authors, including Cameron Crowe, Lester Bangs, Joe Klein, Joe Eszterhas, Patti Smith. It was at point that the magazine ran some of its most famous stories. One interviewer, speaking for a number of his peers, said that he bought his first copy of the magazine upon initial arrival on his college campus. In 1977, the magazine moved its headquarters from San Francisco to New York City, editor Jann Wenner said San Francisco had become a cultural backwater. During the 1980s, the magazine began to shift towards being an entertainment magazine. Music was still a dominant topic, but there was increasing coverage of celebrities in television, films, the magazine also initiated its annual Hot Issue during this time. Rolling Stone was initially known for its coverage and for Thompsons political reporting. In the 1990s, the changed its format to appeal to a younger readership interested in youth-oriented television shows, film actors

21.
The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
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The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time is a 2003 special issue of American magazine Rolling Stone, and a related book published in 2005. The lists presented were compiled based on votes from selected rock musicians, critics, and industry figures, and predominantly feature American and British music from the 1960s and the 1970s. In 2012, Rolling Stone published an edition of the list drawing on the original. It was made available in bookazine format on newsstands in the US from April 27 to July 25, the new list contained 38 albums not present in the previous one,16 of them released after 2003. The accounting firm Ernst & Young devised a point system to weigh votes for 1,600 submitted titles, the list includes a few compilations, and greatest hits collections. The following authors contributed to the made of each album, An amended list was released in book form in 2005. The Complete Recordings would be reinstated to the list in the 2012 edition. E. M, the Rolling Stone 500 has also been criticised for being male-dominated, outmoded and almost entirely Anglo-American in focus. Following the publicity surrounding the list, rock critic Jim DeRogatis and this featured a number of generally younger critics arguing against the high evaluation of various great albums, some of which had been included in the list, including DeRogatis taking on Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, which had been Rolling Stones top choice

22.
AllMusic
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AllMusic is an online music guide service website. It was launched in 1991 by All Media Guide which later became All Media Network, AllMusic was launched in 1991 by Michael Erlewine of All Media Guide. The aim was to discographic information on every artist whos made a record since Enrico Caruso gave the industry its first big boost and its first reference book was published the following year. When first released onto the Internet, AMG predated the World Wide Web and was first available as a Gopher site, the AMG consumer web properties AllMusic. com, AllMovie. com and AllGame. com were sold by Rovi in July 2013 to All Media Network, LLC. All Media Network, LLC. was formed by the founders of SideReel. com. The following are contributors to AllMusic, as of this date, All Media Network also produced the AllMusic guide series that includes the AllMusic Guide to Rock, the All Music Guide to Jazz and the All Music Guide to the Blues. Vladimir Bogdanov is the president of the series, in August 2007, PC Magazine included AllMusic in its Top 100 Classic Websites list. All Media Network AllGame AllMovie SideReel All Music Guide to the Blues All Music Guide to Jazz Stephen Thomas Erlewine Official website

23.
Seventeen Seconds
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Seventeen Seconds is the second studio album by British alternative rock band the Cure, recorded at Morgan Studio and released on 22 April 1980 by Fiction Records. For Seventeen Seconds, Robert Smith co-produced for the first time with Mike Hedges, after the departure of original bassist Michael Dempsey, Simon Gallup became an official member along with keyboardist Matthieu Hartley. Single A Forest was the bands first entry in the Top 40 of the UK Singles Chart. At the end of their 1979 UK tour, Robert Smith spoke less and less with bassist Michael Dempsey, the Cure were, at the time, the band for Siouxsie. An early version of M was performed at a few concerts, Smith commented, I think the final straw came when I played Michael the demos for the next album and he hated them. He wanted us to be XTC part 2 and - if anything - I wanted us to be the Banshees part 2, Smith wrote the lyrics and music for most of the record at his parents home, on a Hammond organ with a built-in tape recorder. Interviewed in 2004, producer Mike Hedges does not recall any demo tracks, two members of the Magazine Spies, bass guitarist Simon Gallup and keyboardist Matthieu Hartley, were added to the bands lineup. Gallup replaced Dempsey, which relieved Smith as he felt Dempseys basslines were too ornate, hartleys synth work added a new dimension to the bands newly ethereal sound, although Smith and he would later clash over complexity. Due to budgetary restraints, the album was recorded and mixed in seven days on a budget of between £2,000 and £3,000, which resulted in the band working 16 or 17 hours a day to complete the album. The record, mostly a collection of tracks, features ambient echoing vocals and minimally treated instruments. This is the first Cure album that Smith was able to choose the art for, retrospectively, Seventeen Seconds has been considered an early example of gothic rock. Its gloomscapes are considered to be a touchstone for the forthcoming movement. The track The Final Sound, is so positively gothic you could almost be fooled into believing that it was lifted from the soundtrack of some Hammer horror gorefest, the album has also been described as new wave. Seventeen Seconds was released on 22 April 1980 and it reached No.20 on the British album charts. The record was repackaged in the US in 1981 with Faith as Happily Ever After, the albums songs are described by critics as featuring vague, often unsettling lyrics and dark, spare minimalistic melodies. Some reviewers, like Nick Kent of NME, felt that Seventeen Seconds represented a far more mature Cure, the album was lauded by some critics, and panned as a collection of soundtracks by others. Chris Westwood of Record Mirror described the album as sad Cure, sitting in cold rooms, in 2000, Q magazine placed Seventeen Seconds at No.65 in its list of the 100 greatest British albums ever. Seventeen Seconds was featured in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, all lyrics written by Robert Smith, all music composed by The Cure

24.
The Love Cats (song)
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The Love Cats is a song by English rock band The Cure, released as a stand-alone single in October 1983. It was the bands first Top 10 hit in the UK and it also reached number 6 on the Australian chart in early 1984. The single later appeared on the compilation album Japanese Whispers, released in December 1983, at the time the song was written, Robert Smith was very interested in the work of Australian author Patrick White. According to a number of his fans, Smith was inspired to write The Love Cats after reading Whites novel The Vivisector, in the novel, the protagonist, Hurtle, is appalled when his lovers husband drowns a sack of stray cats. The music video features a number of cats and a large lampshade falling on the head of bassist Phil Thornalley

25.
Let's Go to Bed (The Cure song)
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Lets Go to Bed is a song by English rock band The Cure, released as a stand-alone single in November 1982. In the aftermath of the dark Pornography, Robert Smith returned from a month-long detox in the Lake District to write the song and it later appeared on the album Japanese Whispers. The origins of Lets Go to Bed lie in Temptation, one of the demos for Pornography, the song is a relatively upbeat, guitar-driven instrumental. At the end of the song, Smith sings a string of wordless syllables, the song version was debuted on Kid Jensens radio show on 27 November 1982, as a take which was very close to the final version that appeared as a single in the same month. Robert Smith has often stated that he wished its B-side, the darker Just One Kiss, was released as a single, on 15 March 1983, the song was the first broadcast for the pioneering Boston, Massachusetts-based alternative rock radio station WFNX. When WFNX was sold and ceased broadcasting on 20 July 2012, the songs music video was the bands first collaboration with Tim Pope, who would go on to direct several more videos for the group. The music video for the features a brief appearance by The Smashing Pumpkins James Iha, also known for his love for. Los Angeles rock band The Dreaming have also covered Lets Go to Bed, Lets Go to Bed at Discogs Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics

26.
Pearl Thompson
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Pearl Thompson, previously known as Porl Thompson, is an English musician best known for his work with The Cure. He rejoined the band in 1983 on saxophone and helped record the album The Top, during the Top tour, Thompson played keyboard as well as the guitar, bass and saxophone. He also performed with The Glove when they appeared on television, Thompson performed on four more studio albums and four live albums as well as the videos The Cure in Orange and Picture Show. He also appears on the remix album Mixed Up and the issue of Three Imaginary Boys. Thompson left the Cure in 1994 to play with Jimmy Page and Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin during the Page and he also played with Babacar, the band formed by Boris Williams following his departure from The Cure. Later Thompson formed another project called Quietly Torn, Thompson continued working with Robert Plant again when he joined the singers group for the 2002 release Dreamland. In 2002, Thompson also had an exhibition of his paintings in Cornwall and he officially rejoined the band for a third time in June 2005 and recorded the live DVD, The Cure, Festival 2005 and appeared on their 13th studio album,4,13 Dream. Thompson toured with The Cure for their 2007-2008 4Tour, Thompson also had the distinction of being the only other person, besides Robert Smith, to have worked with every other member of The Cure both past and present. Although he and Matthieu Hartley were never in the same line-up, Thompson and designer Andy Vella are the co-founders of Parched Art, which has produced many of the record sleeves found on The Cure albums, many of which Thompson drew or painted. In March 2015, Pearl had his first US painting exhibition of landscape paintings at Mr MusicHead Art Gallery on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. Inspired by the remote Malibu canyons and desert landscapes, Pearl is also heavily featured on the album Callus by Gonjasufi recently released by Warp Records. Thompson is noted as being reclusive and private about his life and is primarily now dedicated to painting. instagram. com/p. e. a. r. l. thompson/ Porl Thompson bio http

27.
Simon Gallup
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Simon Jonathon Gallup is an English musician and bassist of the post-punk band The Cure. Born in Duxhurst, Surrey, Simon is the youngest of six born to Bob. After moving to Horley, Surrey in 1961 he attended Horley Infants, between 1976 and 1978 he worked in a plastics factory and became the bass player for local punk band Lockjaw, who later evolved into The Magazine Spies, also known as The Mag/Spys. Former Mag/Spys Gallup, Hartley and Stuart Curran later performed together under the name of The Cry, Gallup first joined The Cure in 1979, replacing Michael Dempsey on bass guitar. He also has been credited for playing the keyboards, particularly after Matthieu Hartleys departure in 1980. He took over keyboard lines for many of the songs that Hartley played, examples of songs he played keyboard on live include At Night, A Forest, A Strange Day and Pornography. During Cold he multi-tasked playing bass guitar and bass pedals, on the Swing Tour in 1996, he played twelve-string acoustic guitar on This is a Lie. On the Dream Tour in 2000 he played a Fender Bass VI on There Is No If, Gallup is also credited with singing lead vocals for a demo for Violin Song. Gallup first performed on The Cure albums that make up The Dark Trilogy, Seventeen Seconds, Faith, Gallup has said that I was about to leave when some guy came up and told me I hadnt paid for my drinks. I was knackered but the bloke took me up to the bar, I hit him, he responded and we had a fight. Robert, on the hand, said that I was on the first floor of this club when they came up. Simon was so wound up that no-one could talk to him - he was screaming at the barman, this young kid who was nearly in tears. By himself, Simon would have never behaved like that but he was surrounded by the crew so he was behaving the way he thought a rock. He didnt want to pay for his drinks because he thought I wasnt paying for mine, I told him to shut up and he punched me. That was at 6.30 am and I was home by half past 10, I left a note saying I wasnt coming back. Id left so I suppose he thought he could do the same, lol Tolhurst adds that The pressures of having to keep up the intensity and aggressive sentiments of Pornography turned Simon into someone different though, at the time, I dont think he noticed. Smith, on drums, then threw his drumsticks at Biddles, Tolhurst played bass guitar and Gallup played rhythm guitar during this last concert. This second incident, occurring weeks after the first notable incident, was more infamous, as soon as he got on stage, Biddles started singing, Smith is a wanker, Tolhurst is a wanker, only Simon is worth anything in the band

28.
The Head on the Door
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The Head on the Door is the sixth studio album by British alternative rock band the Cure, released in August 1985 on record label Polydor. With its variety of styles, it allowed the group to reach an audience in both Europe and North America. In the United Kingdom, it became their most successful album to date. The album is the first to feature drummer Boris Williams, bassist Simon Gallup, who had previously worked on three major Cure albums of the early 1980s, was called back before the recording. In 1985, the became a quintet with instrumentalist Porl Thompson as their fifth official member. The Head on the Door is the first Cure album where all the songs were composed solely by singer and guitarist Robert Smith. This album marks the return of Simon Gallup in the group, he had performed and composed with Robert Smith and Lol Tolhurst on the dark trilogy Seventeen Seconds, Faith and Pornography. Guitarist Porl Thompson, who had played guitar during the early days of the band. Drummer Boris Williams, who had worked with Thompson Twins. During promotion for the record, Smith stated that it was inspired by the albums Kaleidoscope by Siouxsie and the Banshees and Dare by the Human League. He wanted the album to be eclectic with different styles and moods, It reminds me of the Kaleidoscope album, Kyoto Song contains an oriental hook while The Blood is played in a flamenco style. The piano tune of Six Different Ways was previously used by Smith during his tenure with Siouxsie, the last song of the album, Sinking, was reminiscent of the bands Faith era, while Close to Me was described as a disco thing by critics. The opening track and first single, In Between Days, was compared to New Orders material, a Night Like This contains a saxophone solo by Ron Howe from Fools Dance. The title of the album comes from a line in the chorus from the second and final single, Close to Me. Released on 26 August 1985, The Head on the Door was the real first big success for the band, notably entering the top 75 in the US. The album is certified gold in the US, UK and France, upon its release, The Head on the Door was well received by the British press. In a very favourable review, Melody Maker hailed the liberty that Smith took to conceive a multifaceted record, chris Roberts of Sounds said that it makes you wish more pop stars were hip enough to stay in bed all day. Record Mirror reviewer Andy Strickland wrote that The Head on the Door may lack the swirls of chorused guitar that many adore, NME wrote, its quite pop and tunes abound

29.
In Between Days
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In Between Days is a song by the English rock band The Cure, released in July 1985 as the first single from the bands sixth album The Head on the Door. The song was a big international success, in the UK, it was the bands ninth chart single and their fourth consecutive Top 20 hit, while in the US it was their first single to reach the Billboard Hot 100, where it peaked at number 99. It was a Top 20 hit in Australia and New Zealand and also charted in several European countries and it features a distinctive drum intro by Boris Williams and a bass line reminiscent of Dreams Never End by New Order. The extended version, only released on the 12 single in North America, the spacing and punctuation in the title of this song is widely disputed, as it varies between In Between Days, Inbetween Days, and In-Between Days on many official Cure releases. The single used In Between Days, whereas the album The Head on the Door uses In Between Days on the back of the cover and the record label. However, the CD release of the album also uses In Between Days on the actual disc, a similar inconsistency is present with The Cures Lovesong, as it is listed as a single compound word in some instances and two separate words in others. A live version of the song was released on The Rifles single Shes Got Standards, the song was covered by American indie rock band Superchunk as part of the first AV Undercover Series by The A. V. The song was covered by Paramore during a set on Sirius XM Radio in 2013. In Between Days at Discogs Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics

30.
Close to Me (The Cure song)
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Close to Me is a song by English rock band The Cure, released in September 1985 as the second and final single from their sixth album, The Head on the Door. Three versions of Close to Me were released in 1985, the album version, the 7 single mix version. The music video is written and directed by the bands frequent music video director Tim Pope and it consists of the band all inside a wardrobe on the edge of a cliff at Beachy Head. Following the musical scheme of the song, which builds up instrumentally, all the members are inside the wardrobe. Bassist Simon Gallup does not play, and instead appears to be tied up, Tim Pope later revealed that Gallup had a light bulb in his mouth to create a lit from within feel, and the cloth was there to hide the wire. As they go into the sea, the wardrobe fills up slowly with water, like a capsized ship, the video ends with the wardrobe full of water and a band member pushing a rubber duck across the screen. The music video was rated 13th on the 20 to 1, Amazing Moments in Music TV show, aired on Australias Nine Network on 4 March 2007, which rated the most distinctive music videos. Close to Me was released on 9 September 1985 as the single from the bands sixth album. The single peaked at number 4 in Ireland, and also reached number 7 in Australia and number 24 in the UK Singles Chart. It was made available in two different versions, the Closer Mix, included on the 12 and the limited edition CD single, and the Closest Mix, included on the 7, both versions were available together on the cassette release. The Closest Mix was also included on the singles compilation Galore in 1997 and it reached number 13 in the UK and 97 in the US. The video picked up where the video ended, with the wardrobe crashing down the cliffside. Robert exits first and is attacked by an octopus, after his struggle, the other band members try to flee as well, and are attacked by a starfish. The video ends without any of the band reaching the surface. In 2005, Pyeng Threadgills second album, Of The Air, Close to Me at Discogs Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics

31.
Maida Vale
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Maida Vale is an affluent residential district comprising the northern part of Paddington in west London, west of St Johns Wood and south of Kilburn. It is part of the City of Westminster, the name derives from the Hero of Maida inn which used to be on Edgware Road near the Regents Canal. The pub was named after General Sir John Stuart who was made Count of Maida by King Ferdinand IV of Naples, the area is mostly residential, and mainly affluent, with many large late Victorian and Edwardian blocks of mansion flats. It is home to the BBC Maida Vale Studios and it makes up most of the W9 postal district. The southern part of Maida Vale at the junction of Paddington Basin with Regents Canal, parts of Maida Vale were also included within this. Just to the east of Maida Vale is St Johns Wood, the actor Alec Guinness was born in this road. The first Prime Minister of Israel, David Ben-Gurion, lived within sight of this synagogue on Warrington Crescent, the pioneer of modern computing, Alan Turing, was born at what is now the Colonnade Hotel in Warrington Crescent. Maida Vale tube station was opened on 6 June 1915, on the Bakerloo line, Maida Vale is home to some of BBC network radios recording and broadcast studios. The building on Delaware Road is one of the BBCs earliest premises, pre-dating Broadcasting House, the building houses a total of seven music and radio drama studios, and most famously was home to John Peels BBC Radio 1 Peel Sessions and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Little Venice is a recent name for parts of Maida Vale. It consists of the surrounding the Little Venice Lagoon and its canals. It is known for and defined by its Regency style white stucco buildings and its canals, according to one story, the poet Robert Browning, who lived in the area from 1862 to 1887, coined the name. However, this was disputed by Lord Kinross in 1966 and by London Canals, both assert that Lord Byron humorously coined the name, which now applies more loosely to a longer reach of the canal system. Brownings Pool is named after the poet, and is the junction of Regents Canal, a regular waterbus service operates from Little Venice eastwards around Regents Park, calling at London Zoo and on towards Camden Town. Since 1983, the Inland Waterways Association has hosted the Canalway Cavalcade in Little Venice, Maida Vale is noted for its wide tree-lined avenues, large communal gardens and red-brick mansion blocks from the late Victoria and Edwardian eras. The first mansion blocks were completed in 1897, with the arrival of the identically-designed Lauderdale Mansions South, Lauderdale Mansions West, among the buildings of architectural interest was the Carlton Tavern, a pub which stood on Carlton Vale. Built in 1920–21 for Charrington Brewery, it was thought to be the work of the architect Frank J Potter and was noted for its unaltered 1920s interiors and faience tiled exterior. The building was being considered by Historic England for Grade II listing when it was demolished in March 2015 by the property developer CLTX Ltd to make way for a new block of flats

32.
Lysergic acid diethylamide
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Lysergic acid diethylamide, also known as acid, is a psychedelic drug known for its psychological effects. This may include altered awareness of the surroundings, perceptions, and feelings as well as sensations and it is used mainly as a recreational drug and for spiritual reasons. LSD is typically either swallowed or held under the tongue and it is often sold on blotter paper, a sugar cube, or gelatin. However, adverse reactions such as anxiety, paranoia. LSD is in the ergoline family, LSD is sensitive to oxygen, ultraviolet light, and chlorine, though it may last for years if it is stored away from light and moisture at low temperature. In pure form it is odorless and clear or white in color, as little as 20–30 micrograms can produce an effect. LSD was first made by Albert Hofmann in Switzerland in 1938 from ergotamine, the laboratory name for the compound was the acronym for the German Lyserg-säure-diäthylamid, followed by a sequential number, LSD-25. Hofmann discovered its properties in 1943. LSD was introduced as a medication under the trade-name Delysid for various psychiatric uses in 1947. In the 1950s, officials at the U. S, Central Intelligence Agency thought the drug might be useful for mind control and chemical warfare and tested the drug on young servicemen and students, and others without their knowledge. The subsequent recreational use by youth culture in the Western world as part of 1960s counterculture resulted in its prohibition, LSD currently has no approved uses in medicine. LSD is commonly used as a recreational drug, LSD is considered an entheogen because it can catalyze intense spiritual experiences, during which users may feel they have come into contact with a greater spiritual or cosmic order. Users sometimes report out of body experiences, in 1966, Timothy Leary established the League for Spiritual Discovery with LSD as its sacrament. LSD can cause pupil dilation, reduced appetite, and wakefulness, other physical reactions to LSD are highly variable and nonspecific, some of which may be secondary to the psychological effects of LSD. The most common immediate psychological effects of LSD are visual hallucinations and illusions, trips usually start within 20–30 minutes of taking LSD by mouth, peak three to four hours after ingestion, and last up to 12 hours. It is impossible to predict when a bad trip will occur, some users, including Albert Hofmann, report a strong metallic taste for the duration of the effects. LSD causes an animated experience of senses, emotions, memories, time. Generally beginning within 30 to 90 minutes after ingestion, the user may experience anything from subtle changes in perception to overwhelming cognitive shifts, changes in auditory and visual perception are typical

33.
MTV
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MTV is an American cable and satellite television channel owned by Viacom Media Networks and headquartered in New York City. Launched on August 1,1981, the originally aired music videos as guided by television personalities known as video jockeys. In its early years, MTVs main target demographic was young adults and it has received criticism towards this change of focus, both by certain segments of its audience and musicians. MTVs influence on its audience, including issues involving censorship and social activism, has also been a subject of debate for several years, in recent years, MTV had struggled with the secular decline of music-related cable media. In April 2016, MTV announced it would start to return to its original music roots with the reintroduction of the classic MTV series MTV Unplugged. It was also reported that the series MTV Cribs would be making a return on Snapchat, MTV has spawned numerous sister channels in the US and affiliated channels internationally, some of which have gone independent. As of July 2015, approximately 92,188,000 US households have received MTV, several earlier concepts for music video-based television programming had been around since the early 1960s. The Beatles had used music videos to promote their records starting in the mid-1960s, CBS rejected the idea, but Williams premiered his own musical composition Classical Gas on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, where he was head writer. The series featured clips from various popular artists, but was canceled by its distributor in 1971. The channel, which featured video disc jockeys, signed a deal with US Cable in 1978 to expand its audience from retail to cable television, the service was no longer active by the time MTV launched in 1981. The QUBE system offered many specialized channels, One of these specialized channels was Sight on Sound, a music channel that featured concert footage and music-oriented television programs. With the interactive QUBE service, viewers could vote for their favorite songs, the original programming format of MTV was created by media executive Robert W. Pittman, who later became president and chief executive officer of MTV Networks. Pittman had test-driven the music format by producing and hosting a 15-minute show, Album Tracks, the inspiration for PopClips came from a similar program on New Zealands TVNZ network named Radio with Pictures, which premiered in 1976. The concept itself had been in the works since 1966, when record companies began supplying the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation with promotional music clips to play on the air at no charge. Few artists made the trip to New Zealand to appear live. A shortened version of the shuttle launch ID ran at the top of hour in various forms. The first music video shown on MTV was The Buggles Video Killed the Radio Star and this was followed by the video for Pat Benatars You Better Run. Sporadically, the screen would go black when an employee at MTV inserted a tape into a VCR, MTVs lower third graphics that appeared near the beginning and end of music videos would eventually use the recognizable Kabel typeface for about 25 years

34.
NME
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New Musical Express is a British music journalism magazine published since 1952. It was the first British paper to include a singles chart, in the 1970s it became the best-selling British music newspaper. It started as a newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s and 1990s. An online version of NME, NME. com, was launched in 1996 and it became the worlds biggest standalone music site, with over seven million users per month. With newsstand sales falling across the UK magazine sector, the paid circulation in the first half of 2014 was 15,830. In 2013, the list of NMEs The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, NME magazine was relaunched in September 2015 as a nationally distributed free publication. NMEs headquarters are in Southwark, London, England, the brands editor-in-chief is Mike Williams, who replaced Krissi Murison in 2012. The paper was established in 1952, the Accordion Times and Musical Express was bought by London music promoter Maurice Kinn, for the sum of £1,000, just 15 minutes before it was due to be officially closed. It was relaunched as the New Musical Express, and was published in a non-glossy tabloid format on standard newsprint. On 14 November 1952, taking its cue from the US magazine Billboard, it created the first UK Singles Chart, the first of these was, in contrast to more recent charts, a top twelve sourced by the magazine itself from sales in regional stores around the UK. The first number one was Here in My Heart by Al Martino, during the 1960s the paper championed the new British groups emerging at the time. The NME circulation peaked under Andy Gray, Editor 1957–1972, with a figure of 306,881 for the period from January to June 1964, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones were frequently featured on the front cover. These and other artists appeared at the NME Poll Winners Concert. The concert also featured a ceremony where the winners would collect their awards. The NME Poll Winners Concerts took place between 1959 and 1972, from 1964 onwards they were filmed, edited and transmitted on British television a few weeks after they had taken place. The latter part of the 1960s saw the chart the rise of psychedelia. During this period some sections of pop music began to be designated as rock, in early 1972 the paper found itself on the verge of closure by its owner IPC. Alan Smith was made editor and in 1972 was told by IPC to turn things around quickly or face closure, according to The Economist, the New Musical Express started to champion underground, up-and-coming music. NME became the gateway to a more rebellious world

35.
Elektra Records
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Elektra Records is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group, founded in 1950 by Jac Holzman and Paul Rickolt. It played an important role in the development of folk music. In 2004, it was consolidated into WMGs Atlantic Records Group, after five years of dormancy, the label was revived as an imprint of Atlantic in 2009. The label has been run by Gregg Nadel since 2015 who officially became its president in 2017, Elektra was formed in 1950 by Jac Holzman and Paul Rickolt in Holzmans St. Johns College dorm room. The usual spelling of the Greek mythological Pleiad Electra was changed, Holzman famously explained, I gave her the ‘K’ that I lacked. He found the C in the name too soft but liked the solid bite of the letter K. The first Elektra LP, New Songs, was a collection of Lieder and similar art songs, Holzman also recorded Josh White, who was without a record deal as a result of McCarthyite blacklisting. In 1964, Elektra launched Nonesuch Records and this classical budget label was the best-selling budget classical label of the era. In 1965, Elektra began a joint venture with Survey Music called Bounty Records which was Elektras first foray into pop music. The most notable signing for Bounty was the Paul Butterfield Band who was moved over to Elektra when Bounty folded, the labels most important signings were the Chicago-based Paul Butterfield Blues Band, the Los Angeles bands Love and The Doors, and the Detroit bands The Stooges and MC5. Included in Elektras LA signings were Tim Buckley and Bread, in 1968, the label also signed pioneering rock guitar soloist Lonnie Mack to a three-album deal. Also in 1967, Elektra launched its influential Nonesuch Explorer Series, excerpts from several Nonesuch Explorer recordings were later included on the two Voyager Golden Discs which were sent into deep space in 1977 aboard the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 space probes. Elektra, along with its Nonesuch Records subsidiary, was acquired by Kinney National Services in 1970, soon afterwards, Kinney consolidated their label holdings under the Warner-Elektra-Atlantic umbrella. Holzman remained in charge of Elektra until 1972, when it merged with Asylum Records to become Elektra/Asylum Records, Asylums founder, David Geffen, would head the newly combined label. Holzman, in the meantime, was appointed vice president and chief technologist for Warner — ushering the company into home video. Holzman also went on to acquire Discovery Records, in 1975, Geffen stepped down due to health problems. He would be replaced by Joe Smith, who went on to become CEO of Capitol Records. Although the company was listed as Elektra/Asylum Records on the label credits

36.
Synthesizer
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A synthesizer is an electronic musical instrument that generates electric signals that are converted to sound through instrument amplifiers and loudspeakers or headphones. Synthesizers may either imitate instruments like piano, Hammond organ, flute, vocals, natural sounds like ocean waves, etc. or generate new electronic timbres. Synthesizers without built-in controllers are called sound modules, and are controlled via USB, MIDI or CV/gate using a controller device. Synthesizers use various methods to generate electronic signals, synthesizers were first used in pop music in the 1960s. In the 1970s, synths were used in disco, especially in the late 1970s, in the 1980s, the invention of the relatively inexpensive, mass market Yamaha DX7 synth made synthesizers widely available. 1980s pop and dance music often made use of synthesizers. In the 2010s, synthesizers are used in genres of pop, rock. Contemporary classical music composers from the 20th and 21st century write compositions for synthesizer, the beginnings of the synthesizer are difficult to trace, as it is difficult to draw a distinction between synthesizers and some early electric or electronic musical instruments. One of the earliest electric musical instruments, the telegraph, was invented in 1876 by American electrical engineer Elisha Gray. He accidentally discovered the sound generation from a self-vibrating electromechanical circuit and this musical telegraph used steel reeds with oscillations created by electromagnets transmitted over a telegraph line. Gray also built a simple loudspeaker device into later models, consisting of a diaphragm in a magnetic field. This instrument was a remote electromechanical musical instrument that used telegraphy, though it lacked an arbitrary sound-synthesis function, some have erroneously called it the first synthesizer. In 1897, Thaddeus Cahill invented the Teleharmonium, which used dynamos, and was capable of additive synthesis like the Hammond organ, however, Cahills business was unsuccessful for various reasons, and similar but more compact instruments were subsequently developed, such as electronic and tonewheel organs. In 1906, American engineer, Lee De Forest ushered in the electronics age and he invented the first amplifying vacuum tube, called the Audion tube. This led to new entertainment technologies, including radio and sound films, ondes Martenot and Trautonium were continuously developed for several decades, finally developing qualities similar to later synthesizers. In the 1920s, Arseny Avraamov developed various systems of graphic sonic art, in 1938, USSR engineer Yevgeny Murzin designed a compositional tool called ANS, one of the earliest real-time additive synthesizers using optoelectronics. The earliest polyphonic synthesizers were developed in Germany and the United States, during the three years that Hammond manufactured this model,1,069 units were shipped, but production was discontinued at the start of World War II. Both instruments were the forerunners of the electronic organs and polyphonic synthesizers

37.
Flanging
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Flanging /ˈflændʒɪŋ/ is an audio effect produced by mixing two identical signals together, one signal delayed by a small and gradually changing period, usually smaller than 20 milliseconds. This produces a swept comb filter effect, peaks and notches are produced in the frequency spectrum. Varying the time delay causes these to sweep up and down the frequency spectrum, a flanger is an effects unit that creates this effect. Part of the signal is usually fed back to the input, producing a resonance effect which further enhances the intensity of the peaks. The phase of the signal is sometimes inverted, producing another variation on the flanger sound. As an audio effect, a listener hears a drainpipe or swoosh or jet plane sweeping effect as shifting sum-and-difference harmonics are created analogous to use of a notch filter. The term flanging comes from one of the methods of producing the effect. The finished music track is recorded simultaneously to two matching tape machines, then replayed with both decks in sync, the playback-head output from the two recorders is mixed to a third recorder. The engineer slows down one recorder by lightly pressing a finger on the flange of one of the playout reels, the drainpipe or subtle swoosh flange flango effect sweeps in one direction, and the playback of that recorder remains slightly behind the other when the finger is removed. By pressing a finger on the flange of the other deck, as the weight of the tape built on one reel, the pressure on the capstans caused flanging in mixdown or dubbing. His 1955 single Nuevo Laredo features phase shifting, as does the 1953 single Mammys Boogie, american music industry veterans David S. Flanging is also heard in the opening of The Ventures 1962 cover of The Tornados Telstar, in a rocket launch sound effect. Further development of the effect is attributed to Ken Townsend, an engineer at EMIs Abbey Road Studio. Tired of laboriously re-recording dual vocal tracks, John Lennon asked Townsend if there was some way for the Beatles to get the sound of double-tracked vocals without doing the work, Townsend devised Artificial Double Tracking or ADT. According to historian Mark Lewisohn, it was Lennon who first called the technique flanging, Lennon asked George Martin to explain how ADT worked, and Martin answered with the nonsense explanation Now listen, its very simple. We take the image and we split it through a double vibrocated sploshing flange with double negative feedback. Martin replied, Well, lets flange it again and see, from that point, when Lennon wanted ADT he would ask for his voice to be flanged, or call out for Kens flanger. According to Lewisohn, the Beatles influence meant the term flanging is still in use today, the first Beatles track to feature flanging was Tomorrow Never Knows from Revolver, which was recorded on April 6,1966. When Revolver was released on August 5,1966, almost every song had been subjected to flanging, others have attributed it to George Chkiantz, an engineer at Olympic Studios in Barnes, London

38.
Delay (audio effect)
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Delay is an audio effect and an effects unit which records an input signal to an audio storage medium, and then plays it back after a period of time. The delayed signal may either be played multiple times, or played back into the recording again. Delay effects range from an echo effect to a pronounced blending of previous sounds with new sounds. The first delay effects were achieved using tape loops improvised on reel-to-reel magnetic recording systems, by shortening or lengthening the loop of tape and adjusting the read and write heads, the nature of the delayed echo could be controlled. Audio engineers working in music quickly adapted similar techniques, to augment their use of plate reverb. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, several sound engineers began making devices for use in recording studios, guitarist and instrument designer Les Paul was an early pioneer in delay devices. A landmark device was the EchoSonic made by American Ray Butts and it is a portable guitar amplifier with a built-in tape echo, which became used widely in country music and especially in rock and roll. Tape echoes became commercially available in the 1950s, an echo machine is the early name for a sound processing device used with electronic instruments to repeat the sound and produce a simulated echo. The device was popular with guitarists and was used by Brian May, Jimmy Page, One example is the Echoplex which used a tape loop. The length of delay was adjusted by changing the distance between the record and playback heads. Another example is the Roland Space Echo with a record and multiple tape heads. The time between echo repeats was adjusted by varying the tape speed, the length or intensity of the echo effect was adjusted by changing the amount of echo signal was fed back into the pre-echo signal. Different effects could be created by combining the different playback heads, some models also included a spring reverb. Before the invention of audio technology, music employing a delayed echo had to be recorded in a naturally reverberant space, often an inconvenience for musicians. The presence of multiple taps made it possible to have delays at varying rhythmic intervals, many delay processors based on analog tape recording, such as Ray Butts EchoSonic, Mike Battles Echoplex, or the Roland Space Echo, used magnetic tape as their recording and playback medium. Electric motors guided a tape loop through a device with a variety of mechanisms allowing modification of the effects parameters, in the Space Echo, all of the heads are fixed, but the speed of the tape could be adjusted, changing the delay time. Thin magnetic tape was not entirely suited for operation, however. Several designs were made, the 1959 Ecco-Fonic had a spinning head, many were temperamental, such as the Vox Echomatic

39.
UK Albums Chart
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The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts Company on Fridays and it is broadcast on BBC Radio 1 and published in Music Week magazine, and on the OCC website. To qualify for the Official Albums Chart the album must be the correct length and it must be more than three tracks or 20 minutes long and not be classed as a budget album. A budget album costs between £0.50 and £3.75, additionally, various artist compilations – which until January 1989 were included in the main album listing – are now listed separately in a compilations chart. Full details of the rules can be found on the OCC website. In the 1970s the new chart was revealed at 12,45 pm on Thursdays on BBC Radio 1. Since October 1993 it has included in The Official Chart show from 4,00 –5,45 pm on Fridays. A weekly Album Chart show was licensed out to BBC Radio 2 and presented by Simon Mayo,2005 saw a record number of artist album sales with 126.2 million sold in the UK. In February 2015, it was announced that, due to the sales of albums and rise in popularity of audio streaming. Under the revised methodology, the Official Charts Company takes the 12 most streamed tracks from one album, the total of these streams is divided by 1000 and added to the pure sales of the album. This calculation was designed to ensure that the chart continues to reflect the popularity of the albums themselves. The final number one album on the UK Albums Chart to be based purely on sales alone was Smoke + Mirrors by Imagine Dragons, on 1 March 2015, In the Lonely Hour by Sam Smith became the first album to top the new streaming-incorporated Official Albums Chart. The most successful artists in the charts depends on the criteria used, as of February 2016, Queen albums have spent more time on the British album charts than any other musical act, followed by The Beatles, Elvis Presley, U2 and ABBA. By most weeks at one, however, The Beatles lead with a total of 174 weeks. The male solo artist with the most weeks at one is Presley with a total of 66 weeks. Presley also holds the record for the most number one albums by a solo artist and most top ten albums by any artist. Madonna has the most number one albums by a female artist in the UK, though this includes the Evita film soundtrack which was a cast recording, Adele is the female solo artist with the most weeks at number one, with a total of 37 weeks. Queens Greatest Hits is the album in UK chart history with 6 million copies sold as of February 2014

40.
Lost Angels
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Lost Angels is a 1989 independent film directed by Hugh Hudson and written by Michael Weller. It stars Donald Sutherland and Adam Horovitz of the Beastie Boys and it was filmed in and around San Antonio, Texas, that city standing in for Los Angeles. The film was entered into the 1989 Cannes Film Festival, tim Doolan, a troubled youth from a broken home in Los Angeles, is sent to a private psychiatric hospital after an altercation with the police turns violent. In the hospital, he makes a connection with Dr. Charles Loftis, Lost Angels at the Internet Movie Database Lost Angels at Rotten Tomatoes Lost Angels at AllMovie

41.
Michael Azerrad
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Michael Azerrad is an American author, music journalist, editor, and musician. A graduate of Columbia University, he has written for such as Spin, Rolling Stone. Azerrads 1993 biography Come as You Are, The Story of Nirvana was named by Q as one of the 50 greatest rock books ever written and his 2001 book Our Band Could Be Your Life, a collection of profiles on prominent indie rock bands, received similar critical acclaim. Azerrad grew up in the New York City area and received his BA degree from Columbia College in 1983 and his father was an art director at NBC, and his mother a senior consultant at Art and Technology, a computer consulting firm in San Francisco. During his college years, he was both a roommate and a bandmate of keyboard virtuoso Marc Capelle May 21,1988 he married Julia Barnett Just, after college, Azerrad played drums in various small bands while pursuing a career in music journalism. He has since written major features for The New Yorker, Mojo, Italian GQ, in 2000, Q magazine named it one of the 50 greatest rock books ever written. In 2006 The Guardian rated the book as one of the 50 best music ever written. He has spoken at various festivals and conventions, including SXSW, CMJ, Insound, by, Larm, Orloff 5. In 2006, Azerrad co-produced an award-winning documentary about Kurt Cobain and he is the editor of See a Little Light, the autobiography of former Hüsker Dü and Sugar leader Bob Mould, published by Little, Brown in June 2011. In summer 2009, he became a member of childrens music band the Macaroons

42.
Melody Maker
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Melody Maker was a British weekly pop/rock/disco music newspaper, one of the worlds earliest music weeklies. It was founded in 1926, largely as a magazine for dance band musicians, by Leicester-born composer, publisher Lawrence Wright, in 2000 it was merged into long-standing rival New Musical Express. Originally the Melody Maker concentrated on jazz, and had Max Jones, one of the leading British proselytizers for that music and it was slow to cover rock and roll and lost ground to the New Musical Express, which had begun in 1952. MM began its Melody Maker LP charts in November 1958, two years after the Record Mirror published the first UK Albums Chart, MM had larger and more specialised advertising, soon-to-be well-known groups would advertise for musicians. It ran pages devoted to minority interests like folk and jazz, a 1968 Melody Maker poll named John Peel best radio DJ, attention which John Walters revealed may have helped Peel keep his job despite concerns at BBC Radio 1 about Peels style and record selection. Melody Maker supported glam rock and progressive rock in the 1970s, Coleman had been insistent that the paper should look like The Daily Telegraph, but Williams wanted the paper to look more contemporary. He commissioned a design, but this was rejected by Coleman. During this period Melody Maker was described as the journal. In January 1972, in a moment for rock journalism. It was during this interview that Bowie claimed, Im gay, OH YOU PRETTY THING ran the headline, and swiftly became part of pop mythology. Bowie later attributed his success to this interview, stating that, Yeah and it was that piece by Mick Watts. During his tenure at the paper, Watts also toured with and interviewed artists including Syd Barrett, Waylon Jennings, Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, in 1980, after a strike which had taken the paper out of publication for a period, Williams left MM. Several journalists, such as Chris Bohn and Vivien Goldman, moved to NME, Coleman left in 1981, the papers design was updated, but sales and prestige were at a low ebb through the early 1980s, with NME dominant. While MM continued to devote most space to rock and indie music, it covered techno, rap and post rock, two of the papers writers, Push and Ben Turner, went on to launch IPC Medias monthly dance music magazine Muzik. The paper printed harsh criticism of Ocean Colour Scene and Kula Shaker, in 1992, they gave a French rock band called Darlin a negative review calling them a daft punky thrash. Darlin eventually became the music duo Daft Punk. The magazine retained its large classified ads section, and remained the first call for musicians wanting to form a band, Suede formed through ads placed in the paper. In early 1997, Allan Jones left to edit Uncut and he was replaced by Mark Sutherland, formerly of NME and Smash Hits, who thus fulfilled boyhood dream and stayed on to edit the magazine for three years

43.
Q (magazine)
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Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom. Q was first published by the EMAP media group in October 1986, setting apart from much of the other music press with monthly production and higher standards of photography. In the early years, the magazine was sub-titled The modern guide to music, originally it was to be called Cue, but the name was changed so that it wouldnt be mistaken for a snooker magazine. Another reason, cited in Qs 200th edition, is that a title would be more prominent on newsstands. In January 2008 EMAP sold its consumer titles, including Q. The magazine has a review section, featuring, new releases, reissues, music compilations, film and live concert reviews, as well as radio. It uses a system from one to five stars, indeed. While its content is non-free they host an archive of all of their magazine covers, much of the magazine is devoted to interviews with popular musical artists. It is well known for compiling lists and it has created many, ranging from The 100 Greatest albums to the 100 Greatest 100 Greatest Lists. Every other month, Q — and its magazine, Mojo — have a special edition. These have been about musical times, genres, or a very important/influential musician, often, promotional gifts are given away, such as cover-mounted CDs or books. The January 2006 issue included a copy of The Greatest Rock. Every issue of Q has a different message on the spine, readers then try to work out what the message has to do with the contents of the mag. This practice — known as the spine line — has since become commonplace among British lifestyle magazines, including Qs sister publication, Empire, on 4 March 2007, Q named Elvis Presley the greatest singer of all time. The magazine has a relationship with the Glastonbury Festival, producing both a free daily newspaper on site during the festival and a review magazine available at the end of the festival. In late 2008 Q revamped its image, with an amount of text. This Rolling Stone-isation has led to criticism from much of the traditional Q readership, in 2006, Q published a readers survey, the 100 Greatest Songs Ever, won by Oasis Live Forever. Q has a history of associating with charitable organisations, and in 2006 the British anti-poverty charity War on Want was named its official charity, in the April 2007 issue, Q published an article containing the 100 Greatest Singers, won by Elvis Presley